Darling, it was good… listening to Taylor Swift perform a stripped down version of “Holy Ground” on her BBC Radio 1 appearance. The singer, 29, teamed up with the British radio station for acoustic performances of five of her own songs, as well as a cover of Phil Collins‘ iconic hit, “Can’t Stop Loving You.” What (rightfully) caught fans’ attention though, was that the Red era deep cut made the list amongst her four other tracks from Lover – “London Boy,” “Lover,” “The Archer,” and “You Need To Calm Down.”
“One of my favorite things about Live Lounge is you get to sort of reimagine things, if you want to. Because we’re doing this Live Lounge in New York City – which I’ve never done before, [it’s] pretty fun – I was thinking I would play a song that references New York and redo it in a way that maybe it wasn’t heard originally,” Taylor said while introducing the track.
Holy Ground acoustic is literally perfection and I never knew i needed it this much pic.twitter.com/2nfiaAOJ6H
— aj (@stlaurentrosie) September 2, 2019
She continued: “There’s a song off of my album Red called ‘Holy Ground’ and the fans have been so wonderful about that song and really have gotten behind that song. I wanted to reimagine that song and see if you guys like it. I hope you do.” Based on the way “Holy Ground” started trending on Twitter after the show, I’d say fans sure did like it.
Taylor just played Holy Ground on the piano in 2019 and showed the sad aspect of this song I will never recover from it pic.twitter.com/MmKdd3yI1S
— sarah✰ (@thelasttay) September 2, 2019
“Taylor just played Holy Ground on the piano in 2019 and showed the sad aspect of this song I will never recover from it,” one fan tweeted while another wrote, “Holy Ground acoustic is literally perfection and I never knew i needed it this much.”
This wasn’t the first time that the “ME!” hitmaker stripped down the upbeat track for a performance, though. On her reputation Stadium Tour, Taylor reserved time in each concert to go back through her catalog and perform a different song she hasn’t done in a while on her guitar. The crowd in Seattle on May 22, 2018 were blessed with a version of “Holy Ground,” although that one retained its jovial demeanor.